Ov Ink and Changelings
by NeonLit
Summary: Wizard!Stuck AU. In a world where monsters roam and people can cast spells for just about anything, there is a rift starting. Of course, a group of four dorks would be at the center of that rift. Upon opening a rift to another dimension in search of an ancient grimoire, the kids bring four bizarre changelings into their world. Dave Strider is drawn against his will into the mess.


It was a constant source of immense frustration for Dave Strider that he was born as a fire caster. The constant feel of heat running through his body irritated him, almost as much as the fact that whenever he took his shades off, his fiery eyes would scare the ever-loving shit out of anyone in a 50 yard radius. It wasn't uncommon for elemental casters to wear contact lenses that match the colour of their casting, but to be born with naturally coloured eyes was usually viewed as a freakish mutation. He'd ignored as much of the criticism as he could, tried to learn other casting types, even delved into non-elemental casting. Years of honing his abilities had made it so that he had a large of varieties in his arsenal, to the point that he could avoid using fire-based spells at all. However there were still the odd circumstances where under the intense pressure of battle or circumstance, he'd reflexively cast a fire spell of some sort.

Like this very moment.

The claw was rushing in so quickly, he didn't have time to cast a time-based spell, so without a word he shouted loudly, something completely incoherent, which later down the track he'd realise was probably "ice-cream". A wall of fire erupted from his mouth forcing the giant wolf-person-thing back, its lips drawn back in a fierce snarl. Reaching over to the discarded sword on the ground, he rolled himself over, getting back on one knee. In the background, he could hear the sounds of battle and the sounds of the portal growing louder with each passing minute. Dave grimaced a little, his face covered with mud and blood, already feeling like he got smacked with a freight train that also had claws. Although that was a bit of a void thought given that the wolf-thing (_what were they called again_) and then the fight was on again. His hair whipping violently around in the stormy weather, he slashed his glowing sword back and forth, spitting lashes of fire and ignoring the growing heat and frustration in his body.

For all his training, all of his steeling his nerves, he was reduced to casting fire around like some amateur. Fortunately, for his sake, man-wolf-shifting things had an adverse vibe towards fire, as was evidenced by the smell of burning fur and the fleeing of the monster. Sheathing his blade, Dave sprinted across to where John was struggling to hold off two tentacle armed wraiths, planting his fist flat on the chest and closing his eyes behind his sunglasses. The explosion of heat that erupted outwards threw the howling creature a sizeable distance, lodging it hard into the trunk of a tree. Inwardly smirking, Dave looked into the eyes of his friend who'd just slammed his own fist, using sheer strength alone to incapacitate the creature. The two slapped their palms together before retreating back to the violet portal that was currently being maintained by Rose. Her hair was whipping around violently, causing Dave to muse about the fact that it wasn't actually that hot when it happened in real life. Probably more irritating then anything. As the three stood in front of the portal, more storm monsters flew out, howling viciously before spiralling off into the distance. Suddenly, a girl came flying through the portal and crashed into Dave's chest, knocking him to the hard ground, skidding backwards. Her fist collided with his jaw and he flew further back, into a tree, violently winding him. His lip dripped a steady flow of crimson and he glared at his assailant, before his eyes widened. The girl standing in front of him was no other than Jade, the only one in their group adventurous enough to go plunging through a dimensional portal. Her wild hair was rippling with power and her usually jade eyes were glowing vividly.

"Jade, woah, calm your shit, it's only me!" The words flew out of his mouth in a jumble, stuttered almost. The fury in the girl's eyes dies, being replaced with realisation, but she didn't say anything to him, merely spinning on her heel and marching herself towards the portal, grabbing Rose's shoulders and digging her nails in before she screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Rose, shut this fucking portal right now, we need to stop them coming through." The wind whipped away her voice but he can just barely hear it. As he watched on, he saw the blonde girl give an affirmative nod, before she started weaving simultaneous spells, her right hand moving in a repeated pattern whilst she seemingly stitches the portal shut with her dominant wand hand, using her white beams of light to drag the portal closed. As he walked over towards the screaming void, John finished off one of the last hostile creatures, crushing it under the heel of his hard leather boot, it's skull turning to dust as the magic keeping it alive withdrew and flickered away in a black spark. The four mages stood by the portal, praying for it to close, but as the last stiches fall into place and start to drag it out, four multi-coloured flashes of light shoot out of the portal, landing behind the teens. They straightened up, and the light started to fade, revealing four people. One even has shades. This causes Dave to frown a bit. It's almost like they're a bastardised, more haggard looking reproduction of the group. Although, upon taking a quick glance at the current state, Dave realised that they don't exactly look like models themselves.

The two groups faced off for a while, the wild winds still refusing to die down. The fire mage let his eyes drift along the line of strangers, taking in their faces and clothes. There was a dark skinned girl with virulent blonde hair, with a similar facial structure to Rose. She wore eccentric purple clothes, with a baggy hoodie, which wasn't typical sorcerer or mage outfit. There was a lanky guy with blonde spiky hair, who looked completely bored, although you couldn't see his eyes beneath his hideously shaped shades, although Dave did think they were pretty cool. He had several piercings, and his hands were adorned with tacky gold rings. Next to him stood a dark brown haired girl, her blue eyes shining brightly (but not in the same unnatural ways that yours do). Finally, last in line was a stocky, goofy looking guy with thick glasses and a ridiculous outfit on. It literally was too hard to describe how shocking it was.

The red clad mage straightened a little, noticing a slight discrepancy with the opposing group. Every 53 seconds, a small flicker passed over their faces and they would change to have warped features, pointed ears and snarling expressions. Somehow, the tall stoic one managed to not even shift expressions, which was less than could be said for the other members of his group. Dave started, but settled back down, realising that his friends couldn't see the brief change. Inside his undershirt, he could feel some of his harsh ink tightening his breath. The long fight had drained his reserves so the vrijians were starting to try and deactivate themselves by cutting off his breathing, to try and cause him to pass out. It was the downside of using the dark ink magicks. They were sentient to a degree and would violently commit retribution on the user if their demands for a certain amount of magic were not present in the user's reserves. Admittedly, his vrijian tattoos were far less painful then some of his other ones, which tended to draw blood when they decided he'd been overusing them.

It was only during a brief tightening of pain in his chest that Dave realised that John was walking towards the other group of teens, with that big smile plastered across his idiotic face. He groaned, before flash-stepping to his friend's side, clawing into his shoulder. The two boys looked into each other's eyes with Dave trying to convey as much as he could without speaking. John nodded slightly but when they turned back to face the strangers, Dave's magic had already passed into John's system and the blue eyed boy's eyes widened rapidly as he witnessed their flashing transformation. Unfortunately, expending the energy to cast the spell on John had drained his last bit of resistance to the ink and pain flamed throughout his body, bringing him to his knees as he gasped dramatically. The rippling pain began to flare throughout his lungs and tightening in his ankles where two identical clock hands pointed horizontally along the line of his feet. Glancing downwards, John looked at him with a look of pity on his face. He'd never been impressed by possessed ink tattoos so he had always disproved of Dave's increasing amount of them. With a quick huff, he lifted Dave up over his shoulder and stepped back behind Rose and Jade who were prepping themselves, Jade's hands glowing bright green, Rose's wand glowing white, whilst her other hands held some inky shadows. The other four looked at them with a curious look, before the blonde headed girl whipped her hands around and a large shadow rose from the ground and opened up in front of them. Each of the strangers stepped inside and the girl looked over the other four kids, giving a wink to John, before stepping inside the shadow door. With a sound akin to that of a zipper, the door shut behind her and left the four mages staring on with a combination of shock, awe and disappointment.

Rose sighed and pointed her wand hand at Dave, closing her eyes briefly. "Let the stubborn bastard heal a bit." The white magic poured out from the black thorny wand, lighting up the crimson-clad teen in a glowing white light. With a sputter, he woke, a painful grimace plastered across his face. His face slowly rotated over the other three before he sighed, notice the absence of the stoic weird creature things. Clambering down from John's broad shoulder, he sat on the dirt and let his chin nod a little. Whilst Rose's magic had removed a great deal of the stress from the vrijian, it physically fatigued him, leaving him exhausted as if he'd run a great distance. Across from him, Jade scoffed, shaking her head in disapproval. Out of the quartet, Dave used some of the more intensive magic abilities, at least in terms of the physical impact that had upon his body.

Sighing dramatically, Jade let her smile return to her face, cooling the magicks in her hands, before coming over and slumping next to Dave. Lying back against him, she looked back and forth at John and Rose, before speaking gently, "Whatever they are, the place they come from is more hellish than anywhere we've seen or read about before. It's desolate, spirits and monsters run wild everywhere. It's terrifying, but awesome at the same time." Jade's fascination with the more dramatic elements of their world had often dragged them into some ridiculous circumstances, one most notably ending with Dave spending six hours as a sloth monster. Time not well spent. Rose looked frustrated, pinching the bridge of her nose. She'd spent hours searching out and developing the right spell to cast to get them into the other dimension and she'd been absolutely sure that she'd gotten it right this time.

"Are you sure it wasn't the right one? There was supposed to be that book there. Did you see it?" Her cool tone is clipped and tight, an evident showing of her frustration and anger.

Jade shrugged, before she said, "I didn't see it, but I bet those four know something about it. If we go after them, then we're at least on the right track." At this thought, Rose sighed again and lay down, with her head on Jade's lap. The two girls smiled gently, and John joined them, completing their group.

"What now?" Dave's words sound harsh and strangled from his exhaustion, but he was evidently still desperate to get moving.

"We find them, after we have a rest. At the moment all of our reserves are so low that a kret could wipe us all out singlehandedly." Dave shrugged at the thought, before curling up with his head next to Rose's, except resting his head on Jade's stomach. Smirking, John lay alongside Jade staring up into the sky. It was getting late, and the quartet would need to rest for at least a full day before they'd be in any state to go on.


End file.
